W Kenya3 Dec 2020 17:46
Quite an interesting day in terms of developments although Shanta had a quiet time of it. HOC's Mr H put the cat among the pigeons, CEY has some belief restored, and SOLG becomes more torrid in the boardroom. Barrick statements are worth following because Tanz and Kenya are open-ended at present. Quote from yesterday:
"Bristow said the revived Tanzanian mines, North Mara and Bulyanhulu in combination, had the potential to become Barrick’s seventh Tier One asset. A Tier One mine is defined as one that can produce more than 500,000 ounces of gold annually for at least 10 years in the lower half of the industry’s cost curve".
I found his statement pertinent (a) as I had not thought the two mines along Lake Vic shores capable of 500k pa production and (b) it could easily put Rosterman back on the map. The consensus is all three mines are open at depth. I again draw on Laboucan's (Advance)(minority interest) quote from August:
"“We are very excited to have a new joint venture partner in Shanta Gold that sees the same prospect as we do for high-grade gold discovery and development at our joint venture in west Kenya. The two southern claims cover approximately ? of the Liranda Corridor, in Barrick’s opinion they consider the Liranda Corridor as one of the most highly prospective regions for high-grade gold in Africa. The northern claim (Rosterman) could be the jewel in the crown to open up West Kenya gold exploration and mining. This is the claim with the Rosterman mine, which was a historical producer of high-grade gold, with the town of Kakamega built near it to benefit from the good infrastructure nearby. In the June 2020 corporate presentation, published by Shanta Gold, they have a map on page 12 that shows the stacked high-grade veins that were historically mined. They all dip in the same direction, often in these systems the veins can come together at depth and are open for thousands of metres of depth. It is very exciting to see that Shanta agrees with the potential for near term production of high-grade gold looking deeper at the Rosterman mine. In the past, mainly due to the slow progress by our past partners, we looked at options to sell our interest in the project which includes being diluted down to a royalty. We didn’t seriously contemplate participating in funding the further work at the joint venture properties. I can now say without a doubt, that this is a more viable possibility because we may now have a partner that wants to move quickly to advance the joint venture. From a recent conversation with Shanta, they were moving to complete the transaction and then present a plan to move forward on the joint venture. We now see a strong geological model, and a path to making that a reality and have a nice option to participate or be diluted down to a royalty.”
Prospects across the greenstone belt are more promising by the day and as previously stated Nairobi is not going to have a gold industry without adequate support.
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